- One-line statement isolation in the Editor, with parameter auto-fill in the Language window

- Automatic detection and validation of parameters in the argument list

- Spy button for Win32, UIA and HTML functions

- Supports navigating to function definitions

27 mar - Fix for processing the OUTERTEXT attribute for all browsers

28 mar - Firefox: fixed coordinate calculation for rectangles in Spy

30 mar - Fixed rectangle selection in all wizards that capture an on-screen bitmap (the UI is not altered by the selection process any more)

1 apr - Finished refactoring the bitmap lookup algorithm (Pause Bitmap, ClickOnBitmap, wizards). The new algorithm is much faster and the #BitmapPrecision effect is more linear. We decided to develop this after a problem that we encountered during the remote sessions with CA.

26 may - IEBHO: crash fix for the case of bad descriptor syntax

26 may - IEBHO: fix for recording clicks

30 may - finished porting the Firefox extension to WebExtensions. The deadline given by Mozilla was the end of 2017.

31 may - Chrome ext fix for page zoom

Released October 2016, WinTask x64 5.4

14 jun - Spy selection fix for menus

29 jun - Bugfix: ElementToDescriptor for all browsers

8 aug - Chr$ and Asc are extended from ASCII to Unicode range

16 sept - CaptureHtml fix for all browsers

19 sept - GetHTMLAttribute fix for the Chrome and Firefox extensions

27 oct - Schduler logon fix for Windows 10

Released October 2015, WinTask x64 5.2 and WinTask 5.2

In the 64 bit version, one more function has been added for manipulating listboxes and comboxes exposed to UI Automation framework: SelectUIAItem, selects an item in a list or combo specified by its UIA descriptor

Recording mode switches to UI Automation recording (UIA) when the action to record is done within a NETUIHWND window class, or a DIRECTUIHWND window class or a WPF window class. Select Configure/Recording menu to uncheck UIA Recording mode checkbox in Configure Recording dialog box to switch back to the previous mode of recording in those window classes.

ClickOnBitmap wizard has an additional Check button : when clicking this Check button, the mouse moves to the bitmap which will be clicked at replay. Use this Check button when you change the Confidence threshold value.

The new function GetWindowChildrenList returns the names and handles of the child windows of the specified parent window.

A new field Compiled scripts folder (.ROB) in Configure/Run dialog box allows to specify a different folder for .ROB than the one for .SRC. Click Browser button to choose the folder for .ROB. By default, source scripts (.SRC) and compiled scripts (.ROB) are in the same folder. The .LST (compilation listing) files stay in the same folder as the SRC.

The minor fixes/enhancements included in version 5.2 are listed below:

TaskSync (module used in the Pause blocks) was sometimes crashing when used within a web page.

Taskx64 module was sometimes crashing due to a race condition.

Recording mode in IE puts now the lines generated in a 64 bit window at the correct place in the script.

ClickMouse function supports the new keywords Shift+Left and Ctrl+Left, Shift+Right and Ctrl+Right.

UsePage function searches for the specified page title and for the specified url if an url is specified instead of a page title.

Scheduler Holidays List now uses Date settings from Regional language settings (Scheduler is available only in WinTask x64).

Released October 2014, WinTask x64 5.1 and WinTask 5.1

WinTask x64 supports now Windows 2012 R2.

Ajax automatic wait is added for Firefox and Chrome, it is not yet added for Internet Explorer : when a script starts to type into a web form and depending on what is typed, different ajax responses are displayed where a selection has to be done, the script execution waits automatically until the list is fully populated before selecting the item.

Chrome extension has been re-written to make it available in Chrome Web Store. Google does not allow anymore extensions which are not available in their store.

In bitmap/image wizards, a confidence recognition scale has been added, the default is 100% (so exact match). If you change the value and click Paste into the script, it inserts into the script the #BitmapPrecision line automatically.

In the 64 bit version, one more function has been added for manipulating listboxes and comboxes exposed to UI Automation framework: SelectUIAItem, selects an item in a list or combo specified by its UIA descriptor.

The minor fixes/enhancements included in version 5.1 are listed below:

If a new line character is found when generating an UIA descriptor, it is converted to the ? wildcard character.

BMP files were not saved properly in bitmap wizards if the full path was not specified. Now if the path is not specified, the bmp file is saved in the current directory.

Released February 2014, WinTask x64 5.0 and WinTask 5.0

WinTask x64 supports now the UI Automation technology and can use UI Automation to obtain information on UI elements of the application to automatize. Properties of buttons, check boxes, menus and menu items, data grids, list boxes and other controls can be retrieved using UI Automation technology. This new feature is included only in WinTask x64.

The UI Automation Technology has been developed by Microsoft to provide a unified object model that enables all user interface (UI) frameworks to expose complex and rich functionality in an accessible and easily automated manner.

UI Automation is designed to provide robust functionality for automated testing, it is an accessibility framework that enables Microsoft Windows applications to provide and consume programmatic information about user interfaces (UIs). It provides programmatic access to most UI elements on the desktop.

The UI Automation technology works only on applications which have implemented the UI Automation framework. Obviously, Microsoft applications such as Office 2010 or 2013 and WPF applications do support UI Automation

WinTask x64 addresses any desktop element by its UIA descriptor. The UIA descriptor identifies uniquely one element displayed on desktop. In this version, the UIA descriptor is NOT generated automatically by Recording mode and you need to identify manually the element using Spy tool (if Spy tool finds that the element is addressed by UI Automation framework) and then you can use this UIA descriptor as a parameter of the WinTask x64 UIA functions.

In this version, three functions are available: ClickUIA, clicks the element specified by its UIA descriptor WriteUIA, writes a text into the field specified by its UIA descriptor GetUIAProperty, retrieves the content of the specified property for the element specified by its UIA descriptor.

In this version, UI Automation functions dealing with listboxes/comboboxes are not yet implemented.

The minor fixes/enhancements included in version 5.0 (for both WinTask and WinTask x64) are listed below:

The focus is not done anymore on menu windows to avoid their disappearance when a context menu is used.

<PrtSc> keyboard mnemonic is now allowed in SendKeys.

Chrome version 32 is supported.

The Lite version of WinTask is not anymore developed starting at version 5.0.

Released April 2013, WinTask 4.0

Windows 8 (desktop version) is supported in version 4.0. The modern UI (Metro) is not supported.

Internet Explorer 10 is supported in version 4.0. Enhanced Protected Mode must not be checked in Internet Options/Advanced Tab as this enhanced protected mode prevents addon to be loaded.

Spy tool has been redesigned. It returns now the different HTML descriptors which can be used in Web WinTask functions. The Capture button has been removed in Spy dialog box, use Capture wizard instead for capturing data.

<Win> mnemonic key has been added for the left Windows key.

#BitmapPrecision new system variable (not available in WinTask Lite) specifies how closely the found image must match the input image in Pause on Bitmap and ClickOnBitmap functions. The minor fixes/enhancements included in version 4.0 are listed below:

ExecExcelMacro now opens only one instance of Excel even when it is called several times in the same script.

DBConnect now uses #ActionTimeout for the timeout when the database connection process takes a while.

CaptureAreaOCR$ wizard and CaptureOCR$ wizard generate now TopInstance() instead of a constant instance number in the window name : this change is useful within an IE window where the instance number is not the same depending on the frame. You can still change in the generated code the Topinstance() by a constant instance number if needed.

IsRunning function has been re-written.

GetHTMLEditText function returns the field text even if VALUE attribute is empty.

Released July 2012, WinTask 3.9

Any version of Firefox starting at version 10 is supported in version 3.9.

Google Chrome browser is now supported.

The OCR engine from Microsoft (MODI OCR engine) is now available for free and you don’t even need to have Office 2003 or Office 2007 installed to use it. Follow this article : http://support.microsoft.com/kb/982760

SavePictureAs function works now with Firefox (and Chrome).

The minor fixes/enhancements included in version 3.9 are listed below:

SaveTargetAs can now save a file in IE9 without using the Download notification area

ReadExcel/WriteExcel have been fixed for the password parameter

Name function has been fixed when paths are used

Released March 2012, WinTask 3.8a

Capture wizard works now when called from Firefox.

Only Firefox 9.x and 10.x are supported in version 3.8a.

The minor fixes/enhancements included in version 3.8a are listed below:

WriteExcel function tests now if the Excel file is writable for about 5 seconds. If it cannot be written within this time, an error is issued

ClickHTMLElement supports “INPUT FILE[NAME= ‘my_file’]” descriptor and Recording mode generates the correct HTML descriptor (a click on a Browse button to choose a file to upload generates now this descriptors)

Double keyword is now allowed for ClickHTMLElement

ID attributes can be now used in an HTML descriptor, instead of the attribute generated automatically by Recording mode. You need to view the page source to find the correct ID

Multiple selections are now supported in SelectHTMLItem with IE9

GetPageSource$ can retrieve a string up to 16 Mb

Released August 2011, WinTask 3.8

Firefox browser starting at version 5.0 is now supported with all WinTask Web functions except SavePictureAs and SaveTargetAs functions (version 4.x of Firefox is not supported). StartBrowser function launches IE or FF and all subsequent Web functions apply to the browser specified by StartBrowser. It is possible to change in the middle of a script the specified browser using the system variable #HTMLBrowser$. If no StartBrowser statement or #HTMLBrowser$ line are in the script, the default browser to use in Web functions is Internet Explorer (so the default value for #HTMLBrowser$ is “IE”).

Capture Wizard does not support Firefox in this version. You can generate the Capture lines using Internet Explorer and replay them if needed in Firefox.

Internet Explorer 9 is now supported except for the Download dialogs which are automated at mouse coordinates level, see IE9 support help topic.

COM Object has been disgarded.

COM Port functions have been disgarded.

Two new functions are added:

EnabledHTMLElement, returns 1 if the specified HTML element is enabled, returns 0 if it is disabled

PreviousPage() simulates a Go previous page in the browser window which has the focus. This action is not generated by Recording mode and you need to add the function manually in the script. Use this function too for simulating a Go previous page action whatever browser is used

The minor fixes/enhancements included in version 3.8 are listed below:

WriteHTML support CRLF keyword in the string to write

EnumXMLChildren was not working when 2 nodes were starting with the same let

A task scheduled every month was crashing WinTask Scheduler in December (not available in WinTask Lite)

A new option in View menu has been added: Show full path in the title bar. When checked, the Editor window title shows the script name with its path

The list in the Language pane is now alphabetically sorted

When saving a script, the Save As dialog box has now an Encoding field under Windows 7 and you can save the script as 16-bit Unicode

SelectHTMLItem can now select an item with &nbsp character in front of it

TaskSync was sometimes crashing after repetitive executions of the same script

In IE, if Page Zoom level was not at 100 %, the clicks were replayed incorrectly

Released June 2010, WinTask 3.7a

A new function is added:

WriteHTMLPaste, same use as WriteHTML but pastes the specified text “as is” in the Web form field. It is useful for filling TextArea fields with special characters as HTML tags (the < and >). Plus the new function includes an optional Delete keyword in order to delete the field content before pasting the new one.

The minor fixes/enhancements included in version 3.7a are listed below:

StartBrowser with option 3 was not opening IE 8 maximized under Vista/Windows 7

IE8 toolbar menu selections were not replayed correctly

WriteHTML was not returning an error if invalid characters were used

When multiple lines are typed in a TEXTAREA field, Recording mode generates now in WriteHTML an <Enter> at the end of each line

DBGetFieldString can now retrieve money and memo field types

For nested HTML objects, CaptureHTML wizard could sometimes return a content which was not the one returned at replay

PDF/Excel menu selections embedded in an IE window can now be recorded/replayed

New tools are available from the WinTask toolbar in Recording mode : clicking the OCR icon in the toolbar opens the new OCR wizards available directly from the toolbar

Sometimes the WinTask toolbar was disappearing

CaptureOCR$ and CaptureAreaOCR$ wizards display now the captured image as it will be analysed by the OCR engine

ExtractBetween$ offers now a wizard, the string to extract from must be first pasted into the Clipboard before invoking the wizard

A double-click on a .ROB object within Excel launches now directly TaskExec

In Editor the View menu includes Debug toolbar option even if no script is loaded

The xlsx Excel files were not created correctly by the Capture wizard

If StartBrowser fails because the first page is too long to load (or never loads due to a password prompt), the error message was wrong telling that shdocvw.dll has to be registered – now the standard timeout error is displayed

Language window on the right of the Editor window offers now 2 Tabs, one listing alphabetically all the WinTask functions, one listing them by group

In Read(file$,a$), a$ can now exceed 32k

The Compilation was deleting the .log file if the src file and the log file were in the same directory

Error codes 2xx returned by IE are not anymore viewed as errors

A new option is added in Configure/Run menu, if the checkbox Put the Editor in the foreground after a Run is checked, the focus will return to the Editor window after the execution of a script.

Released November 2009, WinTask 3.7

WinTask 3.7 supports Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008.

FTP functions are now available:

#FTPTimeout – Specifies the number of seconds which WinTask should wait before reporting a runtime error when it tries to execute a FTP function

FTPChDir – Specifies the new FTP current folder

FTPConnect – Makes a connection to the specified FTP server

FTPCurrentDir – Returns the FTP current folder

FTPDisconnect – Terminates the connection to a FTP server

FTPExistDir – Checks if the specified FTP folder exists or not

FTPExistFile – Checks if the specified FTP file exists or not

FTPGetFile – Downloads one or several files to the local PC from the FTP server

FTPKill – Deletes one or several files from the FTP server

FTPMkDir – Creates a folder on the FTP server

FTPName – Renames one or several files in the FTP server

FTPPutFile – Uploads one or several files from the local PC to a FTP folder

FTPRmDir – Deletes a folder and its contents on the FTP server

The minor fixes included in version 3.7 are listed below:

The Pause OCR Text using MODI engine was crashing when invoked repeatedly in a loop. However, avoid to use a Pause OCR in a loop, it takes too many resources.

The UsePage function was not putting the focus properly when used between two https pages and a classic window.

Released June 2009, WinTask 3.6

A debugger is introduced in version 3.6 (not available in WinTask Lite). WinTask Full version provides a script debugger as an aid in developing scripts. Using WinTask Debug mode, you can halt the script execution at a certain line, with the Editor showing the line in question, display the value of variables and then resume execution till the next line you have specified.

All the features of WinTask debugger can be accessed from the new Debug main menu option in the WinTask Editor window. A Debug toolbar is also provided that you can display selecting View/Debug toolbar menu option.

The features of the Debug mode are :

Step by Step Execution, also called Step Into.

Run to cursor, execution until the line where the cursor is and stop before executing the line.

Step Over, execution is done without stop within the Sub/Function.

Step Out, step by step execution resumes after the line which called the Sub/Function.

Breakpoints, execution stops only at the specified breakpoints.

Watch variables, allows to watch the specified variables when the execution is suspended.

Under Vista and even if Internet Explorer 7 or 8 is in Protected Mode, the IE7/IE8 menu options can be recorded and replayed.

Internet Explorer 8 is now supported under Vista.

The minor fixes included in version 3.6 are listed below:

The COM object, Tasklib, was not integrated properly in Visual Studio 2008 (Tasklib is not available in WinTask Lite).

Capture$ capturing a field which content changes every 1/10 secs was crashing.

DBConnect function does not display the Windows prompt if the ODBC database does not exist, now, just an error is returned.

The size of OCR Wizard screens has been reduced to fit better the screen size (OCR is not available in WinTask Lite).

Drag and drop is now working in the Editor window.

WinTask third-party Editor has been upgraded to the latest version.

WinTask 3.6 is now built with Visual Studio 2008.

The Quick Start Guide has been divided in two, one for Windows automation, one for Web automation. They can be viewed by selecting menu item Help/Getting started on Windows automation and Help/Getting started on Web automation.

WinTask installer does not automatically register shdocvw.dll anymore. If you use Internet Explorer 6 and receive an error message requesting to register this dll, register it. Under IE7 and IE8, this dll is not used anymore (ieframe.dll is used instead).

Released March 2009, WinTask 3.5b

A new function has been added:

CloseWindowRegEx, closes the specified window, using Regular Expressions to specify the window title part of the window name (not available in WinTask Lite)..

The InWindowAnyInstance keyword has been added for Synchronization on Window : the pause is done then for the specified window, whatever instance it has. This new keyword allows to deal more easily with Internet Explorer pop-up windows. The same keyword can be used too in OnAction Window (OnAction is not available in WinTask Lite).

The keyword Immediate can replace the Forced keyword in CloseWindow to close immediately the specified window.

When you compile a script, errors and warnings are displayed in the Output window of the Editor. It is now possible to display only the errors (and not the warnings) by checking the checkbox Suppress compiler warnings in the Configure Run dialog box (Configure/Run menu).

MoveWindow and SizeWindow accept now coordinates covering the multiple monitors desktop area. So a script can now launch an application and move it to a second monitor. Note that Recording mode generates a lot of intermediate lines when you record a window move, so edit the script and just keep the first one and the last one.

The minor fixes included in version 3.5b are listed below:

ExtractBetween$ extracts the specified string between the first occurrence of the start string and the first occurrence of the end string.

CheckedW used with optional parameter <item_name> waits until the list is fully loaded before checking if <item_name> is there or not.

A small wait of 250 ms has been added when the Click statement is executed – sometimes, the button to click was not ready for receiving the click and the click was failing.

SaveTargetAs was not working properly under Internet Explorer 7.

Enable/Disable statements were not working properly for OnAction Mouse (does not apply to WinTask Lite).

Acrobat Reader menus are now correctly recorded using Recording mode.

Capture$ wizard inserts now a 0 as the last parameter of the Capture$ statement. You can change this parameter to 1 if needed in the Editor.

Caption keyword in BeginDialog…Enddialog generates now the correct title when the dialog box is displayed using CallDialog

Company

WinTask, a privately held company, is the developer of WinTask Software.